ASSAULTING PATIENTS

Last Thursday evening 30 federal Drug Enforcement Administration
agents raided the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Cooperative, a
medical certification and dispensing center for physician-certified
patients who are authorized by California law to cultivate, possess
and use cannabis, or marijuana. No charges have been filed, although
all of the center's plants, patient records, computers, gardening
equipment and marijuana were seized.

"This represents a major escalation in the federal war on marijuana
patients," Dale Gieringer of California National Organization for
Reform of Marijuana Laws told us. "Previously the feds used civil
injunctions to close Northern California coops. But this raid,
combined with a raid three weeks ago on a grower in Ventura, the raid
on Dr. Marion Fry in Cool and reports of increased surveillance at
Northern California facilities, suggest the feds are looking for
serious jail time for patients and care providers."

The U.S. Supreme Court decided in June that federal law does not
include a "medical necessity" defense against federal marijuana
prohibition laws. Although the court did not invalidate California's
medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 1996 as Proposition 215,
most activists had expected some federal action, especially once
former Rep. Asa Hutchinson was confirmed as head of the DEA.

If charges are filed, they should present some interesting state and
local government versus national government federalism issues. The
Los Angeles cooperative has worked closely since Prop. 215 was passed
with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept., which patrols its
location in West Hollywood, and with the West Hollywood City Council.

On Friday Sheriff's Capt. Lynda Castro, along with all five members
of the West Hollywood City Council and representatives from Rep.
Henry Waxman, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl and Assembly members Paul
Koretz and Jackie Goldberg, participated in a news conference
expressing sadness at an action that will leave 900 AIDS patients
with no secure access to a medicine that their doctors say helps
them. The stage is set for a national-local power struggle, with the
feds wondering if they dare risk a jury trial of a patient in
California.